They met at the Mercere house of Leth Cuinn to travel to Iniscrabhall.
The redcap Cian the Bold came as a guard, and Morran was the lead grog.
It was rainy and cold, so Aoife cast Cloak of the Duckfeather on all the party and animals.
Some brigands showed up partway along the route, but Iohannes used an array of Imaginem magic to solve any potential issues. The party stayed overnight in a fishing villiage.
The next day, attempting to cross the River Bann at a toll gate some soldiers stopped the party, but it was quickly determined that this group was from Iniscrabhall. Lead by Cass, the captain of the guard, this crew were doing…‘fundraising’.
The party learned of a secret method, that shall not be disclosed here, to access the island of Iniscrabhall in Lough Neagh from the land shore of the lake near a small hamlet of Marghery that services the covenant – without having to walk through the freezing water of the submerged causeway. The soldier and doghandler Connor accompanied us across and introduced us to Dubhgal the Black, who manages the mundane aspects of the covenant.

The party were then introduced to Fionn, a somewhat disheveled, insipid monk-like figure, who was the sole remaining mage at the covenant. The main building of the covenant is a two story stone building with five lab and sancta plus living quarters and a council chamber.
On the ground floor, Aoife took the sanctum of Augustus an Flambo, Aine took the sanctum of Octavia ua Treameare, and on the top floor is Fionn’s sanctum, Iohannes took the sanctum of Ros an Flambo, and Concaid took the sanctum of Niall cultus Bionaere

An evening’s introduction dinner was held, and a number of important issues and points were discussed:
- The original founders of the covenant get an extra vote according to the covenant charter (i.e. Fionn), there is no provision for ties
- There are two sources of vis – one is Saint Patrick’s Tree, which is an end of winter task to collect apples that fruit out of season. The second is magical eels that are trapped by the covenant fishers to the east along the shore of the lake, back over the Bann. There is a stone formation called Saint Patrick’s Seat near this tree and the causeway to the mainland that is a minor pilgrimage site as a detour off Saint Patrick’s Way
- The whereabouts of the other founders of the covenant are unknown, and Fionn assumes they are no longer alive. Fionn stated he was at Vigil at the time, and it had been some time since he had seen Niall anyway. The others left but did not return.
- Ros has a deal of some sort with a fire spirit
- There had been a war of some sort – the covenant had ruffled some feathers, took something from a giant. Now dead, the giant’s body was stolen and used to found a short-lived covenant at Blackhall near Balur’s Eye. That covenant had some other problems a season before the ones here at Iniscrabhall
[NOTE: details of these covenants were later discovered to be incorrect: Blackhall is far to the west of Lough Neagh somewhere in Ui Niall country and is built in Balor’s Eye. There is a now ruined covenant at Giant’s Cove, which is in the hills of Beaghmor, to the west of Lough Neagh]
- The Redcaps of Leth Cuinn have always assisted the covenant.
- Vigil is some distance away to the Northwest near the coast, generally good relations
- We try not to upset blackhall
- There is a faerie court in the centre of the lake
- There is some sort of monster in the lake, Fionn never saw it, and suspects it is dead
- Some texts were cleared out during the investigation into the covenant member’s disappearances, and these texts were not returned.
- The island and lake have further magical connections that permit rapid travel from Iniscrabhall to the far shores of he lake.
- Niall had a second sanctum somewhere

6 Jan 1220 – An expedition to secure the vis from the eels
A party of Aoife, Concaid, the head fisher Calbhach depart. Notice that some of the eel traps have been torn opened, always when people crewing the traps are momentarily distracted, or an animal opens them. The fishers noted this started around a year ago. Fionn informed the party that Niall had previously been in contact with the fae of the lake.Domhnall was on watch most recently. On quizzing domhnall, Aoife manages to terrify Domhnall with an off the cuff joking remark.
While all the fisher’s knives are found so that they can be checked as to whether they were used to cut the traps, Concaid and Aoife challenge each other on how far they can throw a rock skipping across the lake, because this is definitely a worthy use of magical abilities. Aoife wins the resulting certamen and casts a spell to make water run out of Concaid’s nose until sundown. Nothing of note was discovered about the knives, until, through the power of mead, Una the Fisher and Finniane the Fisher recalled that Finniane’s knife had been caught in the net and had been unable to be retrieved, and Una had also had a knife stolen by a magpie the previous winter at the cove where the eels are found.

7 Jan 1220
At the eel cove, Aoife caught sight of a water rat jumping out of the water, grabbing Calbhach’s knife, and jumping back into the water. The shape was identified as a faerie through Aoife’s second sight, determining that this was a trickster puca. Cass talked to the faerie using mead as an offering. Ten minutes later a path of frost appeared on the lake, and a single imposing blue figure rose out of the lake and approached on the path of frost.

The fae lord is Ámhra, son of Arolghul. Aoife talked to the prince explaining what we were after, but failed to observe proper etiquette. Amhra noted that lesser fae have responsibility for looking after stocks of eels. He noted that Niall had had a treaty with the fae, but did not provide details. He also stated that the fae were seeking the return of their white horse, and he would send an emissary with some details about the horse. Perhaps an arrangement could be come to.

8 Jan 1220
An inventory of the covenants resources were taken, and Niall’s sanctum was investigated.
There were a bunch of hidden stash spots- Niall was clearly secretive. The sanctum seems somewhat suspicious, but there wasn’t any further info to be gained here. It was noted that if Niall was alive, he no longer has a token for the covenant. Concaid morphed to a wolf and smelt the room, noted some old scents, a somewhat animal scent, nothing beyond this. The rooms stockes were bare as Niall clearly was only restocking his alternative sanctum.
We found an old love letter from between Augustus and Octavia.

10 Jan 1220
A redcap, Eisten showed up. The mages asked about the books taken by the Quasitors and wrote a message to go to them (Concaid wrote the letter)
Eisten noted that the redcaps keep a distance from the lake fae. Apparently the faerie court is in six parts, and the king has half a dozen children
The English; there’s a bit of turmoil, there was a furore at the last tribunal. Eisten’s cousin spoke out about the English, which Leth Cuinn do not approve of.
Elk’s Run: noted that this was an excellent kennel, but that it was difficult to get breeding hounds out of them.

11 Jan 1220
Aoife, Cass and Concaid went to Leth Cuinn,, met a badass faerie called Úathch. She is the wife of the covenant leader and an excellent martial trainer. Is the granddaughter of Nuadh and Badhbh.
She noted that the horse wanted by Amhra could be the Horse of Aengus. She also noted that she had met Niall once around 7 years ago, and that there was a spear, of ashwood and silver, that could pierce the hide of any beast. This was an ungainly weapon – it belonged to a giant, but was sized for a human.

At this point, Concaid left the covenant, seeking to work at Elk’s Run. Another mage who had expressed interest in the covenant was invited to join, Rodhri of Criamon. Aoife had met Rodhri previously in Wales

20 Jan 1220
Rodhri arrives at the covenant via a magical boat from Leth Cuinn and is given information on Irish wizarding law, the Coill Tri, the fae, and the requirements for covenants in Ireland. Most of the mundanes had an adverse reaction to Rodhris blatant gift.

The remainder of winter:
Aoife collected the Herbam Vis from Saint Patrick’s Tree (4 pawns of herbam vis)
Iohannes toured around the lake and went to the towns of Antrim and Portadown on the way.
Two leads were found on the horses:
- There is a white/ghostly horse that has been seen around Beaghmor
- The stables of John de Lacy, the Norman lord currently in Antrim, apparently have an unusually spirited white horse.

Mercere house seems to be quite military-oriented. We were offered weapons training by Cian the Bold, a local Redcap. While we were there, they continually trained in the courtyard, it was quite impressive. I understand there are 2 such houses in Ireland, and they are exempt from some local legal requirements on covenants establishment.

Cian assigned Morran and 3 other grogs to us to escort us to our new home. I could have gotten a horse to ride there, but declined. It does not pay to lord it over your own sodales from the start. Not before I earned it, at least. We did get 2 pack horses though.

The trip took almost 2 days. I would like to say it was uneventful, but that would be a lie.

First we were thoroughly drenched by freezing rain. It was enough to make me reconsider the wisdom of my decision to move here. Luckily, Merinita covered us all in Cloak of Duck’s Feathers (even though it took her several tries to do the same for horses). To show her my trust, I suppressed my Parma to let her do so. Gaining trust is essential, as my master always said.

With help of some wine, I established some rapport with Mercere grogs and learned some new swear words. This will come in handy in the future.

Near the end of the day (and what is going on here, I wonder! Day is just a few hours long, even with the clouds and rain I would expect some more daylight?), we were accosted by some English bandits. My knowledge of English, Imaginem and Mentem served me in good stead to avoid the bloodshed, but I have misjudged my companions. It appears both my sodales and grogs were keen on shedding blood (not theirs of course), and I messed up their plans. I need to find them an appropriate outlet for this bloodlust.

We slept in tents by a small fishing village. I need to look into organizing some decent lodgings to be maintained from covenant funds around the lake, it is not appropriate for magi to be sleeping on the ground.

Next day we were once again beset by brigands. Having learned my lesson yesterday, I let grogs off the chain, and expected to see bloodbath. However, this time it ended with hugs and kisses, which surprised me to no end.
Even greater was my surprise when I discovered that these brigands (though a better class than ones yesterday – these had a toll booth instead of a rotten log), are actually our covenant grogs, out to do some freelance fundraising. Apparently, covenant has fallen on hard times and they use this to gather additional funds. What have I gotten myself into?

Cass, the Captain of the grogs, led us to the shore of the lake Lough Neagh. Our surprise was great when he showed us reed & prayer trick that takes one straight to the shores of the island. Animals, however, are not affected, and I wonder what would have happened if Concaid was in his heartbeast form, too?

We arrived on the shore of the Coney Island with no more than our shoes wet, but were warned that saying the prayer wrong, or moving the reed in wrong pattern can have bad consequences. Especially if one can’t swim or breathe water.

We were met by a thoroughly unpleasant servant by the name of Dubhgal the Black, who pretended not to have time for us. A sharp word later, and we were met by Fionn ua Bonaosagus, our covenant’s one remaining funder.

Nota bene: Take Dubhgal down a peg or two. He servers no purpose other than to be a buffer between Fionn and the rest of the covenant, and it appears Cass is the one the covenfolk actually listen to.
Fionn welcomed us and gave us a brief explanation of the history of the covenant.
Dubhgal then gave us a cursory tour of the building and we were allowed to rest briefly before dinner.

I have started keeping separate account of covenant and it’s history, and will write this in a separate Account.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.